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"It's
'Green' for a While"
by Scott Mantz
"The Green Mile"
Tom Hanks,
Michael Clarke Duncan
Directed by Frank Darabont
What do William
Shakespeare and Stephen King have in common? They are both famous
authors who have had many of their literary works adapted for the
big screen. For King, these cinematic adaptations have had various
degrees of success, ranging from the brilliant and beautiful ("Carrie",
"Christine", "Stand By Me") to the downright awful ("Graveyard Shift",
"Pet Cemetery"). Director Frank Darabont's excellent reworking of
King's prison drama "The Shawshank Redemption" may not have fared
too well at the box office, but it did garner 7 Oscar nominations,
including best picture. After a 5 year break, Darabont returns to
the director's chair to serve time on "The Green Mile". While "Mile"
is a well-acted, beautifully crafted, and moving film, it suffers
under the weight of its own ambitions to stay true to King's six
volume set of books.
Paul Edgecomb
(Tom Hanks) is a Louisiana penitentiary security guard on Death
Row during the Great Depression. The Green Mile, which gets its
name from the lime-colored floor that lines the cell block, gets
its newest resident in the form of John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan)--a
hulking 6-foot-5 black man. Coffey is accused of murdering two little
girls, but his menacing figure is offset by his childlike and innocent
demeanor. When Coffey miraculously cures Edgecomb's painful urinary
tract infection with just a touch to his "family jewels", he begins
to doubt his guilt. With the help of his loyal subordinates, Edgecomb
devises a plan to put Coffey's miraculous healing powers to a much
needed use.
When it comes
to playing honorable nice guys, nobody does it better than Tom Hanks.
His portrayal of the decent, well-mannered, and soft spoken security
guard is a fine addition to his impressive 90' resume, but I wouldn't
exactly call it Oscar-worthy. He's got one of the darkest and nastiest
jobs imaginable, and he goes about it with all the compassion and
sensitivity of a man who, even in this thankless situation, tries
to make the best of things order to keep his sanity and save his
soul.
Let's face it.
There aren't too many roles out there for a man of Michael Clarke
Duncan's stature. He may not have agents breaking down his door
for romantic leading roles, but he couldn't have played this towering
man-child any better. He keeps to himself at first, but when he
begins to show signs of his hidden abilities, he commands the screen
and gives an embracing and touching performance.
David Morse
and Sam Rockwell are in fine form as Hanks' loyal subordinates,
but it is Doug Hutchison who gives a breakout performance as a spoiled
and sadistic security guard named (appropriately!) Percy Wetmore.
He thinks his kinship to the state governor means he can get away
with anything, including his brutal treatment of the other prisoners
and his condescending attitude to the other guards. He even kills
a harmless mouse and draws out a painful execution simply because
he can. His equally insane counterpart is a prisoner named Wild
Bill, who's significance to the story becomes obvious, but it points
out how evil can rear itself on both sides of the fence.
The biblical
references in "The Green Mile" are pretty obvious. It's no accident
that John Coffey's initials are the same as another miracle-wielding
figure named Jesus Christ. In a scene where Coffey is watching a
movie, the light from the projector emanates around his head like
a halo. After performing several miracles, Coffey is finally crucified--not
on a wooden stake, but on a hunk of tin--in front of a crowd of
people. Even those who believed in him are powerless to save him.
"The Green Mile"
suffers from its excessively long running time. As it is, John Coffey's
story doesn't even begin until almost an hour into the movie. The
power of the main story gets lost in some overindulgent, but still
emotional and disturbing, scenes. The question you have to ask yourself
is, are these scenes really necessary? There has never been a more
graphic depiction of an electric chair execution, but do we really
need to see it 3 times? Also, having the film bookended by an elder
Paul Edgecomb reflecting on his experiences reeks of "Saving Private
Ryan", but without the effectiveness of that film. It adds a side
note to the consequences of Edgecomb's actions, but it doesn't really
add to the power of the story.
While most directors
strive to reach a point in their career where they have complete
control over the final cut, it can sometimes be a mixed blessing.
Some films have so much information that they need to be long, but
sometimes directors simply get on a roll and don't know when to
stop. That's the problem with "The Green Mile". The power and effectiveness
of the story gets sidetracked by emotional, but ultimately needless,
scenes. There is a beautiful story here, but I just wish we didn't
have to sit through the whole thing to see it.
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